Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-01
DAILY HERALD.
wAiss wit Against Red.
New York SUM-

OlOuu AxcuCy W thC uoA tisOeoe VI L VI y
Laramie?" queried Joe Wagner, the
Indian fighter, as he was asked to
narrate one of his adventures.
Eyes,
.sWell, still to the northeast of that
is the Spotted Tail Agency, provided
the Indian agents haven't stolen it.
Through these two reservations runs a
bit of river called the Niobrara, and at
= big bend, midway between the
two agencies, l set myself down one
fall to do some trapping. 1t was the
first or second year after the agencies
were established and the redskins
forced to live upon them, and the
whole lot of them were in cantank-
erous state from Sunday morning to
Saturday night. War parties were
sneaking off the reservation now
and then to sneak back when
the pursuit became too hot, and the
red devils left at home thought no
more of killing a white hunter than
you would of kicking a chip out of
your way.
81 went there to hunt and trap be-
cause it was game region, but l
realized all the perils, l knew that if
/ was discovered by the Indians I'd
Laramie with a mule, provisions and
traps, and was ten or 'leven days get
ting to the bend in the river have
spoken of. The first thing was to
corral the mule in safe place, and
the next to go into camp about mile
away and leave as few traces of my
presence as possible. l didn't see any
Indian signs around there, but didn't
let that fact make me over confident.
/ have been struck by a rattlesnake
when didn't suppose there was one
within ten miles. made me a COM
Portable shelter of limbs and brush,
got fifty-six traps into the river and
some dead-falls set, and had begun to
feel a bit easier in my mind when. on
the third day after my arrival, |
secuted out to see if the mule was all
right. l found him dead. His throat
had been cut from ear to ear, and, by
the big horn spoon! it was the work
of redskin. He had not only cut
the animals throat clear across, but
had cut and slashed the body in fifty
places. In the sign language of the
Indian that meant contempt for the
owner of the mule. 1t meant for me
to look out for myself. 1t meant war
to the knife on the white man who
had dared trespass upon the forbidden
grounds.
'If had been fool huff to go walk
ing around in search of the mule, the
chap who finished him would have
finished me. But wasn't, you see.
/ went gliding about like a sarpint,
and from the edge of a thicket l saw
the body of the mule lying in little
glade. That there was an Indian near
by, ready to draw bead ON me, had
NO doubt, and the idea didn't rattle
me as much as you might suppose.
l reasoned that if there were two reds
they would have run the mule off in
stead of killing him. believed there
was only one ,and that he was some
young warrior who was ambitious to
Ratch cunning with me, and who
wanted the honor OF having outgener-
aled me. That tickled me a bit. l
don't want to do any boasting, but
I've lived in the Indian country all
my life, and it never happened that a
redskin got very far ahead OF me, as
anybody knows of. 1t was about 10
O'Clock in the morning when l got my
gentle hint. From the looks of the
body judged that the mule had been
killed that very morning. This made
it pretty clear that the redskin had
not yet discovered my shelter. Other
wise, he would have attended to my
case first. My first care was to get
out of the neigh hborhood without leav-
ing any trail, and then to build a
small fire at mile or so from my
camp, and cut down brush and make
a decoy camp. The fire l had used to
cook my breakfast had been built in a
hole in the ground, and carefully eX-
tinguished when it had answered my
purpose. The red would smell the
smoke of this fire half a mile away,
and chuckled as l thought of him
skulking around there and waiting for
q man about my size to come in and
be bored with bullet.
1.-THE next move was to strike the
river just where the savage would hit
it if looking for my traps. 1t was
guesswork, of course, but | surveyed
the ground, put his head on my shoul-
ders for half an hour, and when l
waded back l was in ambush in a
bunch of willows, and he would have
to show himself to get to me, rea-
soned that he would find the fire and
the counterfeit camp by IL O'Clock.
He would hang around there until
about 2 before he gave up looking for
me. Then he would slide for the
river, hoping to pick me up as sat on
the ground pulling the pelts off my
catch. l had been in position over an
hour, and was beginning to wish the
climax would come, when sudden
thought lifted me foot high, and in
side OF minEte l was shaking my
way down the stream. 1t struck me
all in a heap that l had reasoned
wrong. The redskin wouldn't come
my way at all, nor come through the
woods, but would go further up the
river and come floating down along
the right bank, which was heavily
shaded, and in the shadow. | came
to stand about quarter of a mile
below the ambush, and in one of the
Bl1iaii OCAAho VI Vic ElICdil. COuIt
now see up the river clear to the spot
/ had vacated, and what do you sup
pose happened inside OF ten minutes
Well, sir, that Indian came floating
down at the end of an old log, and
when he reached the point opposite to
where | had waited to ambush him he
rose up, picked his rifle off the log,
and waded ashore, drawing the log
after him and landing it, Then he
softly crept into the willows, and if l
had been waiting in the old spot he
would have had my back to
him, and l would have been
a goner. The cuss had reasoned
out for himself. He had discovered
tina. the camp was bogus. He had
reasoned that 1 would lay for him
it,st where I did. Then, to beat me